Tracing Footsteps
by Diarydream
Summary: Sarah Richardson was perfectly content with her life. She had her own shop named Marigold's and had a beautiful 7-years old son named Darren who was smarter then he should be at his age. She loved spending her time at the shop and that was home for her and her son. Never could she have suspected the tornado Doctor Spencer Reid would bring into her life after a trip to Durant.


**CHAPTER ONE**

_"If it is a miracle any sort of evidence will answer, but if it is a fact proof is necessary. –Mark Twain."_

Slow, gentle steps were taken as the soft wind traced the figure now making her way towards the beautiful shop at the top of the hill in Quantico, Virginia. It was a small 5-minute walk from the main part of the town, but the little shop was well visited and well loved. It was positioned on the top of the hill and surrounded by amazing nature. Trees, flowers and healthy green bushes framed the place. There were not many places where you could see such beautiful greenery. The shop itself was a two-story one. The space where one could sit was from glass, created especially so one could admire the nature while eating their foods and drinking their beverages. A large, two-door entrance was made out of glass also, but huge, indestructible iron protected the fragile shop.

The figure stepped into the light framing the doors. It was still early and her employees would come in none less than an hour and thus she had enough time to get everything prepared for her trip to Durant, Oklahoma. She was planning on introducing a new dessert to the shop and there was an ice-cream shop in Oklahoma which she wanted to visit in order to create the ice-cream she wanted to use for the new treat. It would take some time, but she already knew she wanted blueberries in it. They had been asked for by multiple costumers and she finally decided to do something about it.

She put the keys into the lock and turned it, making the large iron walls pull back into the building itself. Then she pulled out a second key and unlocked the door, stepping inside. She turned on the lights as she took off her coat and hung it next to the door. She took a deep breath and sighed as she looked around her shop. It was a beautiful place and she absolutely loved her shop. There had gone so much work into it and most of it had been done by herself and her parents who had gone back to Baltimore a few years ago. As she looked towards the little table next to the door, where normally just a vase with flowers stood, she saw a letter. Her full name, Sarah Victoria Richardson, was written on the envelope in beautiful cursive letters. She took it from the table and walked towards her office, placing it on the desk.

Sarah took her already packed suitcase from under the desk and left her office with a writing pad and pen, locking it. She walked downstairs, as her office was upstairs, and put the suitcase down. As she wrote the tasks left for the employees down on paper she made her way towards the kitchen. It was her heaven and a place she normally would only allow two other people into, just like she would only allow her best friend in her office when she wasn't there. Her two cooks, Thomas and Janet. They were an elderly couple who had both worked in kitchens. Thomas used to be a chef and Janet a pastry chef. Sarah herself was both and with the money she had saved over the years she spent as chef in some fancy restaurant she had created her own little place. She had named it after her sister. Marigold's was the name of her kingdom. It was simple, yet it held so many meaning.

Finishing with the task list she would leave to her best friend and head-server Katharine, or Katie, she placed it on the To-Do board. They were simple tasks- Replacing flowers, watching the new servers and keeping everything rolling. She was still going to talk to her before she left for Durant but Katie easily forgot things and so it was not a bad thing to write a note otherwise it was very possible that things wouldn't get done.

Sarah made sure to open all the curtains, cleaning the tables one more time and remove the old flowers from the vases on the tables. Then she took the old flowers and went outside, as it was lighter already, and threw the flowers into a trashcan. Then she left towards the garden, taking one of her scissors with her. She felt good and so she made her way over to the back of the garden where her most prized flowers were. They were the first flowers she had planted when she came to Quantico- 'French Vanilla' Marigolds. Most of the back of the field was filled with them.

She cut the flowers at the bottom of the stem, making sure they're long enough for the vases. As she took her last flower, a beautiful bloomed one, she stood up and placed the flowers into a basket she kept nearby in order to transport the flowers without destroying them. She took the basket back inside and started creating little bouquets placing them in the vases. Then she placed the basket in the cupboard under the stairs leading towards the second seating area, closing that door also.

Sarah could hear the laughing and crunching of the little stone pathway towards the shop. She knew that her employees were arriving. It was already 8 A.M. after all. The shop would not open until 10 but she had to make sure everything was settled for her departure and that everyone knew their tasks. Normally Sarah would not have allowed and elderly couple like Thomas and Janet walk all the way up and she had one of her employees on stationed at the bottom of the hill for transportation to the shop, but both Thomas and Janet insisted that the walk would be healthy and thus refused the help. Sarah could understand though, the walk up towards the shop was beautiful. Just like the place itself it was surrounded by greenery.

Slowly the front doors opened and the team of seventeen people entered the café, which was part of the cake shop and restaurant. Actually, Marigold's was all three in one, which is why Sarah was mostly calling it a shop. It was quite annoying to constantly say all three functions of the shop and thus she refrained from doing so.

The whole shop was in rich, warm colours. Brown, orange, red and dark or emerald greens mostly. Sarah herself wasn't that big a fan of green but it worked amazingly well with the dark brown wooden walls. No, Sarah had always been a blue and purple girl.

Slowly the hall was filled with the employees as they hung up their coats and jackets. Normally they would hang them in their lockers, but Sarah felt that it gave a homey feeling and thus asked them to ask their coats at the entrance.

Katie let out one last laugh before moving towards Sarah, giving her childhood friend a tight hug. Sarah returned at and smiled. Then Katie let go and stepped next to Sarah. She knew that Sarah was about to start the briefing because of the expression on her face. Sarah was a kind-hearted and amazing girl, but when it came to her business she was ruthless. This was her home, her baby. Her hard work was put into every inch in this place.

"Pay attention, please."

The group stopped talking as they turned towards their boss. They, too, knew it was business now. Yes, they were all friends. Some kind of messed up family even. But business was business.

"I'm about to leave for Durant. I won't be here for a couple of days, but I suspect you'll all work as if I was still here. I will not accept slacking off, but you all knew that already. Now, I want Michaela, Kensy, Hailey, Freddie and Grant on service for the next few days. Gracie, you'll help Thomas and Janet in the kitchen. Don't destroy anything or I'll cook you alive. Bonnie, Jason, Simon and Chris are on garden duty for the next few days. Now, take extra good care of my lilies, they're drying out. Henley, you're on transportation. Ashton, Rayden and Hayden, you are on cleaning duty. Your actions last week were unacceptable and you did not work as you should. I'm sorry, but this is a bit of punishment, I guess. Katie, you're on cash. You know the code and you're the only one, but take extreme measures in keeping the register locked and safe. Also, make sure Darren gets to school on time and feed him proper food, not microwave meals. I want my son healthy. I spoke to his teacher and she promised to look after him and take him home from school. She is our neighbour after all. I have already said goodbye to him and he knows his mommy will be back in a few days. He also knows waht he can and cannot do and to tell me if you agree to him doing things I would not allow. I expect to not get any complaints. Customer is king. However, if a customer-"

"-is unreasonable, refusal is acceptable. Sarah, we know the rules. All of us have been working here for a long time. We know how it works. And Little D will be fine. You need to stop worrying and just enjoy your little trip to Durant. You have never taken a day off and you deserve some you time even if it is for checking out the new desert. Also, don't feel guilty about putting us on cleaning duty. We deserve it." Hayden said as he put his arms around Rayden and Ashton and grinned.

Sarah couldn't help but smile a little. Those guys could always make her laugh. Yes, they truly were family. Hayden and Rayden were twins and were dating Gracie and Kensy who were sisters. Ashton's girlfriend was Michaela and Chris was living his fantasy with Bonnie. Jason and Simon were the resident homosexuals and they were the most amazing couple ever. Freddie had fun with Hailey and Grant and Henley were perfectly content being single. Both were ladies' men. Katie was dating a resident police officer named Mark. Sarah however was a completely different story.

Being 5"8 she wasn't the tallest out of the box, but she wasn't small either. She wore her chestnut brown hair proudly and her blue eyes were features she was proud of. She preferred wearing heels. Currently she was wearing a black blouse and a red flower-printed skirt that reached a little over halfway her thighs. She also wore a black vest over it. Sarah was definitely pretty, but she herself didn't think so.

Sarah's son, Darren, looked so much like her it was scary. He shared her hair color, eye color, features etc. She loved her son even if she hated his father. Darren was her little sunshine.

She sighed and shook her head lightly. "All right, well, I guess that's all. I should really be going. My flight is leaving in an hour. Please, if anything's wrong, and I mean anything, please call." She said as she moved to the suitcase and dragged it with her. Henley was going to take her to her flight because it would be stupid to bring her car ad pay the parking costs.

They moved outside and the entire Marigold team followed them, intending to wave her off. Henley took Sarah's suitcase and placed it in the trunk of his car, a small Toyota. Sarah made her way towards the passenger seat and sat down, waving one last time at the others and closing the door. Henley followed soon after. Then he took off.

It took 15 minutes to reach her plane and she quickly made her way to her seat. She couldn't help but smile as she saw Henley, as sweet and shy as he was, with a big sign saying 'See you later, Sarah!"

The flight to Durant would take a few hours and in order to make sure she could keep up when she got there she decided to just take a little nap while she was in the plane anyway. No one was going to judge her. It took a little time, but after a while she could feel the darkness taking over and let herself fall into oblivion.

She woke up a little later and quickly made her way to a cute bed and breakfast she had found in the city. Getting a cab was hard enough, but the cab couldn't take her there all the way and she had to walk a distance. Now, normally, walking wouldn't bother her but walking with a heavy suitcase and a heavy bag was quite taxing.

She had almost reached the bed and breakfast when she noticed a part of the city taped off with that distinctive yellow police tape. She stopped straight in her tracks as she looked at the scene. Slowly, but surely she could feel that familiar feeling creeping up onto her. She was having a vision.

Sarah staggered and her hand flew to her head. Her breathing quickened. Flashes appeared before her eye. She saw a female is 80's clothing, her eyes burned out by something. Sarah kept walking, hoping to quickly get away from that place. She didn't even see the man standing in her way.

Sarah bumped into him and fell to the ground. After catching herself on the floor her right hand found her head again. The flashes had stopped but she was till really dizzy.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Here, let me help you up." The man said and he grabbed her under her arms, pulling her to her feet. It took Sarah a few seconds but she could see and stand straight again.

"No, it's fine. I should have been paying more attention." Sarah said as she smiled up at the man. He had brown hair and was really tall. He had a lean body. "Thank you for helping me up. I'm Sarah Richardson. It's nice to meet you." She said as she held out her hand.

The man stared at her for some time before smiling slightly. He grasped her hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you, my name is doctor Spencer Reid."

**Hi, darlings! 2398 words are currently here for you to enjoy! It took me some time, but still.**

**Please comment! I love reading comments and stuff! Also, do not hesitate to correct me. Everything will be fine. Just some basic info: Darren is 7, like Jack. The story will start in season 7! Hotch will have a big part in it, but it is a SPENCER REID love story. Sarah herself is 26. The rest will be told throughout the story. I hope you will enjoy reading it!**

**Love, Sarah**


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